‘Fills Me With Pride’: Boris Johnson Says Titanic Sub Disaster Victims ‘Died in a Cause’

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Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed on Friday that the victims of the OceanGate Titan sub disaster “died in a cause” for “human knowledge,” and that the tragic event filled him with “pride.”

Johnson reacted to the tragedy, which left five people dead, in an article for the Daily Mail, titled, “Lefties sneer. But those brave souls on the submarine died in a cause – pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge – that’s typically British and that fills me with pride.”

In the article, Johnson wrote, “I know there will be many who will say that [Hamish] Harding and his ­fellow adventurers were foolish, and that we need regulation against such experimental technology,” before referencing “the Leftie Twittersphere” and its criticism of the voyage.

“Let me tell you how I feel about those on the Titanic expedition. I think they are heroes,” he continued. “Yes, there were risks, and warnings. But every great advance must inevitably involve ­experiment, and equipment that can seem, in retrospect, ­dangerously inadequate.”

Johnson argued, “Hamish Harding and his fellows were trying to take a new step for humanity, to popularise undersea travel, to democratise the ocean floor,” before concluding, “Harding and his friends died in a cause — pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge and experience — that is typically British, and that fills me with pride.”

The OceanGate Titan submersible lost contact with the surface on June 18, less than two hours into its descent to the shipwreck of the Titanic. While many believed those on board to still be alive and in need of rescue, a search team found debris from the submersible days later, confirming that it had imploded during its descent.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 77-year-old explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood all perished during the incident.

OceanGate’s Titan submersible, which was constructed partially with off-the-shelf parts, had been criticized for being unsafe. The submersible was controlled using an old Logitech game controller, and OceanGate’s former Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge, was allegedly fired from the company after raising safety concerns about the sub.

CEO Rush, who perished on board, said last year in an interview that “at some point, safety just is pure waste.”

He said at the time, “I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything.”